Wheaton Labs Permaculture Bootcamp

An introduction to the Permaculture Bootcamp at Wheaton Labs in Montana, North America.

Wheaton Labs is an over 220 acre (about 90 hectares) ranch and farm near Missoula, Montana, United States. It is the site of numerous permaculture and homesteading events and projects run by Paul Wheaton, the founder of Rich Soil and Permies.com, as well as the project's main site: Wheaton Labs. The Permaculture Boot Camp is an experiential learning environment where participants develop permaculture skills through a little hard work and hands-on training. Members are called “Boots.”

Boots grow gardens and food forests to feed themselves and fellow Boots; all the while learning natural building skills that will house the bootcamp community for years to come.

• hugelkultur
• mulching
• polyculture
• lots of taprooted species started from seed (instead of transplanting)
• building rich soil
• raising humidity for more morning dew
• terraces, berms, TEFA
• diversity and edge
• strategic shade
• food forests and perennial systems
• earthworks, ponds, water management

• roundwood timber framing
• wofati
• cob, straw bale, slip straw
• junkpole fence
• willow feeder
• natural plasters
• earthen floors

• green woodworking
• carpentry

• rocket mass heaters (we currently have 12 operating rocket mass heaters)
• solar: photovoltaic, using 12v and inverter systems
• solar: food dehydrator, cookers
• haybox cooker
• rocket stoves, rocket cooktops, rocket griddles, rocket ovens, rocket kiln and slow cooker

• solar dehydration
• fermentation
• canning

• 7:00am - Everybody starts making breakfast.
• 7:50am - Breakfast is done; kitchen cleanup begins.
• 8:00am - Morning work begins.
• Noon - Everybody makes lunch.
• 12:50pm - Lunch is done; kitchen cleanup begins.
• 1:00pm - Afternoon work begins.
• 5:00pm - Everybody starts making dinner.
• 7:00pm - Dinner is complete and kitchen is cleaned up.
• 9:30pm - 6am: Quiet hours.

That's 40 hours per week working on projects. Most of this work will be interesting to people who like Permaculture.

Food staples will be provided, consisting of a combination of organic-or-better store-bought staples and food provided by the garden systems developed in the Bootcamp.

Either party can end this arrangement at any time. There is no obligation to stay.

The 40 hours per week is called “project labor.” All boots are expected to chip in to do the cooking for one another and cleaning up after one another. Plus four to eight hours per week of “nest labor,” that would include shoveling snow, deep cleaning, maintenance, garden harvesting - things of short term benefit to the boots community. (Planting a garden to feed people months into the future falls into “project labor.” Harvesting from a garden to feed yourself and other boots in the next few days falls into “nest labor.”)

If you have any further questions, please see the friendly FAQs, or visit the Wheaton Labs Bootcamp wiki at Permies.com.

To become a Boot, you must first sign up and be on the waiting list. To get on the waiting list, you must pay the non-refundable fee of USD$100 per person. To do that, please go here: How to Join.

Whenever there is an opening in our Permaculture Bootcamp, we will send an email to all the people on the waiting list. Of the people that reply to the email within 24 hours, the person that has been on the waiting list the longest will be selected. For more information,and to ask questions, please visit this forum thread on Permies.com: Bootcamp waiting list

Please be aware, this is a drug and tobacco free campus.